I don't want to sound like a nostalgic but Modern's hw are awful

If the Fury Vs Usyk fight cannot be arranged. Please organize the other fights that @Gazelle Punch listed.

 

Heavyweight has in general been awful, always, almost consistently throughout the history of the sport. Marquee division for most if not all of that, sure, but depth (of quality, top 50 p4p operators, beyond maybe a half dozen names tops per era) has literally never been its calling card. You can almost set your watch by it being the most top-heavy (pardon the pun) weight class, no matter whence on the overall timeline you take a snapshot.

If the argument is that we currently have only four or five really good or potentially great HW's and the rest are dreck - I think you'll find that argument to be as old as boxing itself, with very few exceptions.

 

I’m talking about something a little different. Zhang against Joyce is a good example of the kind of fight that rarely gets made these days.

Have a round robin over 1 year between Zhang, Sanchez, Larena, and Anderson. Ruiz would also make a great fight with Larena.

Have another one between Makmuhdov, Jalolov, Dychko, and Hrgovic.

Then you could have a lower tier one like Bakole, Ajaba, Jarrel Miller, and Zhan.

These could be happening concurrently with the fights you mentioned.

 

I agree with you! I would also watch Fury vs. Ruiz.

OR I would watch Usyk (or Fury, etc. ) vs. Zhang! Those even sound better than what we have been getting lately in the Heavyweight Division.

 

This is becoming a sort of freak show.

In 20 years from now, how many of the current HW crop will be remembered?
I suspect most of them will be hardly a footnote.

 

Yep.

 

I am not sure one could argue that case with any confidence or success.

Maybe we do have four heavyweights being sold as really good and potentially great, but how could we tell? They don't fight each other.

Over the past five years, promoters have managed to deliver Fury vs Wilder x3 / Joshua vs Usyk x2.

As it stands, therefore, we've seen two pretty good heavyweights negate the perceived strengths/abilities of a couple of other heavyweights , who were perceived to be good - confirming this in one or more rematches. The end.

The filler making up for the fights that haven't happened has been, in the main, quite poor.

The division is so starved of even half-decent matches that Joyce vs Zhang is elevated to levels making it worthy of a rematch, which might have some entertainment value and a level of financial relevance, but it's not necessarily a demonstration of talent in the division. We can probably see one big man walking into the punches of another big man quite frequently.

I would add that I don't think we could take a snapshot of the Klitschko era and demonstrate that the period undeniably yielded four or five really good heavyweights.

 

This era is more than capable of being great. It's filled with talent, however the biggest fights still aren't being made so who cares

 

Good point. This is why my brother has stopped watching most boxing fights over the past decade or so (and prefers MMA now), due to the best matches either not happening or happening too late.

 

The problem with the Heavyweights now is they're too frigging old.

Usyk is 36, Joyce is 37, Zhang is 40, Fury is 34, Ortiz is 100, Wilder is 37, etc.

Fighters like Joyce and Zhang have proved very little so far, and are already old and probably don't have many fights left.

Fury wasted like almost 2 years of his career and is on the verge of retirement.

Usyk is on the verge of retirement having only 4 fights at Heavyweight so far.

Tell me where the young Heavyweights are in the 20s ? Who are super talented ? Even guys like Hrgovic is 31 and hasn't been too keen to fight since getting his bubble bursted by Zhang.

 

Usyk and Fury aren't that old in this day and age in the world of sport- Messi, Djokovic and Jon Jones were all born within two months of each other in 1987 and they've had a decent year. But it would be good to see some young top guys coming through in the heavies, I agree there.

 

Gassiev, Justis Huni, Jai, Jared Anderson, Richard Torrez Jr., and Ajaba are in their 20s.

Sanchez and Bakole are 30.

 

Well lets see if they pan out.

 

I wonder if this is the first time in history all top 10 ranked HWs (in this instance as per Ring Magazine) have been older than 30.

 

Oh come on! That suggestion is far too sensible for any boxing commission to implement. I do agree with you.